


This Body is Empty

by churkey



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Nirvana - Freeform, Nogitsune Stiles Stilinski, Stiles and Derek find enlightenment, heart sutra, the nogitsune isn't actually evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 07:07:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21231782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/churkey/pseuds/churkey
Summary: Stiles finds enlightenment. Derek finds Stiles (and enlightenment).





	This Body is Empty

**Author's Note:**

> More thorough discussion on where this fic comes from after, since I don't want to spoil it. But I do remember that I kind of quit watching Teen Wolf because of this story arc. 
> 
> Regarding my translation of the Heart Sutra quote, I'll admit that I took a little poetic license to fit in with the fic (but not too much since I'm not the only one to translate it in this way. I normally would never have translated 色 as 'body'). The translation isn't inaccurate, though. 
> 
> Also, note, early copies of the Heart Sutra, in Japan, were written using all Kanji -- in Classical Chinese. Indeed, all early writing in Japan used only Kanji. Hirigana and Katakana are later inventions because Chinese characters alone (kanji) aren't well suited to representing the grammar of Japanese.

> 色不异空, 空不异色, 色即是空, 空即是色 (The body isn't separate from Void, Void isn't separate from the body, the body is Void, and Void is the body. -- my translation)
> 
> \-- 心经

* * *

When the Nogistune knocked on the door, Stiles let it in.

Stiles went from _something_ to _nothing_.

The Nogistune was void and so was he.

* * *

Stiles realized he had a problem when he heard about how Noshiko told everyone that the Nogistune was a demon.

A creature of chaos.

It was a problem because it wasn’t true.

How could Void be chaos? Chaos was _something_ and the whole point of voids is that they are _nothing_.

He wished that the others could see the beauty of the void.

* * *

The Nogitsune was an interesting entity.

Stiles was likewise an interesting entity now that he was Void.

Stiles had a self.

He also had no self.

So he had a self and no self.

But he had neither a self nor a no self.

He was empty.

* * *

The solution, he realized, was that he needed to disappear for a little while.

They’d forget and move on.

Given how absent his dad was and how little Scott seemed to care these days, it wouldn’t be a big loss.

Plus. Stiles was already gone.

He no longer existed.

(Even as he still lived.)

* * *

They called Derek to track him down.

Perhaps the next best thing to happen after letting the Nogitsune in.

His friends didn’t seem to understand that he was at peace now.

He was enlightened, after all.

Already beyond life and death.

He’d stepped into the void.

And reached nirvana.

* * *

Derek found him, of course.

He and Derek were always finding each other.

For all that there was no Stiles anymore, he was still Stiles.

And he’d wanted (loved) Derek for so long.

So he found Derek.

* * *

They didn't consider that someone with Derek’s past might welcome nothingness.

Might welcome becoming empty.

Become void.

That Derek might embrace the end to his suffering, in the exact way Stiles had.

* * *

Derek found Stiles.

He let go of desire and ended his suffering.

Emptied himself and became nothing with Stiles.

**Author's Note:**

> So... I found it utterly bizarre that a Void Kitsune would be a *bad* thing. I have no real idea if they are a real part of kitsune lore in Japan (I'm more familiar with Chinese stories of fox spirits). At some future point, I want to try and write a nogitsune fic that borrows more from the Chinese stories of fox spirits, since they are more like succubi (having sex with men to steal their life force via semen to become human...). 
> 
> In any case, given the prominence of Buddhism in Japan, it stretches my credulity that 'void' would be a negative thing.
> 
> All you need to do is read the Heart Sutra to see that nothingness/emptiness is the key to enlightenment and reaching nirvana. Given that the premise of Buddhism is to end suffering (since life is suffering), it wouldn't surprise me at all for Stiles or Derek to leap at the chance to end their suffering via enlightenment, especially not when its as easy as this.
> 
> Oh. And keen readers might recognize that one of the sections is a tetralemma. Which are famously used by Nargajuna in his philosophy to prove that everything is empty. I couldn't help myself.
> 
> Um... I realize that the tone of this fic almost seems... depressing? It isn't meant to be since Derek and Stiles end up together and are enlightened. Like... it's a happy ending. Even if it may not read that way. That's more of a fault in my writing.


End file.
